Brook’s ton seals SRH’s 23-run win over KKR
Kolkata: England’s new batting sensation Harry Brook brought a high-flying Kolkata Knight Riders down to earth with a sensational 55-ball century as Sunrisers Hyderabad cantered to its second victory by 23 runs in an IPL match, here on Saturday.
Young Brook finally managed to crack the IPL code in style with SRH managing a massive 228 for 4 in their stipulated 20 overs on a batting beauty.
Their bowlers despite some hammering from home skipper Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh were restricted to 205 for 7 in 20 overs.
Brook, who was roped in after his exploits in Pakistan, finally announced his arrival in style, when he smashed four fours and two sixes
inside first three overs to give SRH the best start of the
season. Bought by SRH for a whopping Rs 13.25 crore, Brook had managed only 29 in first three games but found his rhythm with a 55-ball-100 as he smashed 12 fours and three sixes. This was 16th edition’s first century.
In reply, it was always going to be difficult for KKR to maintain a run-rate of 11 plus per over but skipper Rana (75 off 41 balls) did launch into SRH bowlers with half a dozen sixes and had ‘Man of the Moment’ Rinku Singh (58 not out off 31 balls) for company in their 69-run stand off only 6.2 overs. This was after KR were reduced to 96 fo 5 within first 10 overs.
Once T Natarajan got rid of Rana, it was left to Rinku to pull off yet another heist as 57 were needed off last three overs.
But Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/29 in 4 overs) gave 10 in the 18th over while Natarajan (1/54 in 4 overs) went for 16 in the penultimate over.
With Rinku on strike and 32 needed off last over, Umran Malik (1/36 in 2 overs) came back well to dismiss Shardul Thakur with the first delivery and effectively sealing the game as the southpaw was stranded at the other end for first two deliveries.
Rinku face four balls but Umran bowled fast and full to keep him under check with only eight runs being conceded.
Earlier, having got a reprieve on 45, when he was dropped by rookie leg-spinner Suyash Sharma an easy chance off his own bowling, Brook got to his 50 off 32 balls.
Brook also overturned a caught-behind decision off Lockie Ferguson when on 61, as he hammered the Kiwi fiery pacer in the same over five fours, en route to the first century of the season, which came off a single off Umesh Yadav in the final over.
Opted to bowl, KKR fielding was also a big letdown as
Skipper Aiden Markram also played an impactful innings in the middle when he raced to a 26-ball fifty as the duo stitched together 72 runs from 47 balls.
